Evidence-Based Social Intervention – (M.Sc.)

In all societies, workers from a range of disciplines and backgrounds intervene to ameliorate social problems. These problems are in areas as diverse as mental, child protection and support for parents, refugees, care for increasing numbers of vulnerable elders, substance misusers, delinquent young people or those affected by HIV and AIDS. While social problems continue to increase, the resources to combat them are limited by fiscal and political pressures. The practical imperative of ensuring effective use of finite resources, together with an ethical imperative to demonstrate that intervention is doing more good than harm, require that practice be based on sound evidence.

Worldwide there are many training programmes leading to qualification for professional practice, but few have the time or space to require students to examine thoroughly the effectiveness of the social interventions for which they are being trained. "Evidence Based Practice" has become an axiom for governments and service providers, but it often seems that the evidence is thin or the research on which it is based is flawed.

The M.Sc. in Evidence-Based Social Intervention teaches how interventions may be assessed and evaluated, and how critical appraisal can test the claims of "evidence based practice". It tackles the difficult issues involved in transforming research findings into useable interventions for practice, and facilitating practitioner access to the information about evidence which they need to make their decisions.

The debate on evidence-based practice is often polarized - for or against. In addition to teaching rigorous research and appraisal skills, the EBSI course invites a thorough examination of what is meant by the term, and what are the strengths and limitations of this approach.